By Rebecca Lake

Compatibility is an important part of the advisor-client relationship. Even the most experienced advisor may have difficulty making a connection if their personality doesn’t mesh well with the client’s. If you oversee a team of advisors, the decisions you make about which clients to pair them with can have a significant impact on the outcome. Here’s how to match financial advisors with clients based on personality, and build stronger relationships in the process.  

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Understanding the Link Between Personality and Client Behavior

Your client’s personality can have a significant influence on how they approach their relationship with you and the decisions they make regarding their financial plan. This can be key when it comes to both your approach to planning and how you develop buyer personas as you seek out new prospects.

There’s no single metric for categorizing financial advisor client personality types. You can, however, apply a traditional model like the “Big Five” to develop a framework for understanding client behavior1. The Big Five approach emphasizes the following personality traits:

  • Agreeableness. Agreeableness describes how kind and caring someone is, and how likely they are to take a positive approach to problem-solving. 
  • Conscientiousness. Individuals who have a conscientious personality trait tend to be hardworking, ambitious and energetic. They’re typically adept goal-setters who are skilled at moving past obstacles. 
  • Extraversion. Extraversion describes people who are comfortable with social interaction and enjoy being around people. Introverts, on the other hand, tend to turn inward and may be easily tired by spending a lot of time around others. 
  • Neuroticism. Neuroticism is a personality trait that’s connected to anxiety, fear and insecurity, and describes someone who may easily become overwhelmed or overreact in stressful situations.
  • Openness. Openness means being receptive to new experiences. Open people may be more innovative or more willing to take risks. 

Your clients may possess a mix of these personality traits to different degrees. And again, this isn’t the only way to understand personality. The Myers-Briggs system, for instance, specifies 16 personality types based on different combinations of eight characteristics2.

Determining which type of personality your client has can offer insight into their risk tolerance, spending habits, communication style and beliefs about money. For example, clients may be:

  • Reactive or proactive
  • Cautious or risk-takers
  • Analytical or emotional
  • Easygoing or easily stressed
  • Passive or hands-on

These are just a few examples to illustrate the range of personalities you may encounter when working with clients. They also reflect the types of advisors who may be working alongside them.

When you pair the right advisor with the right client based on personality, that’s when the magic happens. Advisors and clients who have personalities that mesh well may find it easier to build trust and rapport. There may be fewer hurdles to creating a financial plan that aligns with the client’s values and goals, and smoother communication overall. 

That’s a win for the client, the advisor and the rest of the team. Clients who feel in sync with their advisor may be more inclined to remain with their firm. They may also be more open to sending referrals your way, which helps with long-term growth and sustainability.

How to Match Financial Advisors With Clients Based on Personality

Matching advisors with clients according to personality is essentially a three-step process. You’ll assess, analyze and match.

Here’s how it works, in more detail. 

Step 1: Client and Advisor Assessment

To make a match, you’ll need to understand the types of personalities you’re working with. There are different ways to approach this, but what matters is that you’re consistent in applying whichever method you choose. Otherwise, your results may be skewed.

For example, you may present clients with a financial assessment that includes questions designed to offer insight into their preferences and personality traits. You may ask questions about:

  • Preferred communication methods
  • Risk tolerance
  • Financial objectives
  • Attitudes or beliefs surrounding money
  • Values and lifestyle priorities

You may create a similar questionnaire for the advisors on your team that covers questions about their investment approach, preferred communication methods and what they perceive to be their greatest strengths and weaknesses. Or, you may use a standard personality text, such as the MBTI framework associated with Myers-Briggs.

Step 2: Analyze the Results

Once you have the results from the advisor and client assessments, it’s time to dig into the data. Here, you’re looking for areas of overlap that could indicate a particular advisor could be a good fit for specific clients.

There are a few ways you could handle this. For instance, you could look for: 

  • Similarities between advisor and client preferences for things like communication, investment styles, or values
  • Shared personality traits (if you’re asking both clients and advisors to complete a standard personality test)
  • Identical keywords that show up in client and advisor responses (if you’re asking open-ended questions that invite a detailed response)

This step is helpful not only for matching, but it can also help you get to know your clients and your team better. What you learn may be useful in other scenarios, such as developing a new service offering or planning team-building exercises. 

3. Make a Match

The last step is tying everything together and deciding which client and advisor are most suited for one another. You can do this based solely on the comparisons you made in the previous step, or ask AI for assistance, if that’s something you feel comfortable doing. 

For example, you could load a client’s answers into ChatGPT and ask it to suggest personality types that would be compatible. You can then compare the answers generated to the personality types of each advisor on your team. 

Let’s say you have a client with a relatively low risk tolerance who has a tendency to panic when the market gets volatile. An AI tool may suggest an advisor who’s patient and empathic, and has a more conservative approach to portfolio management. This is just a suggestion; you should take the time to fully consider the personalities of each individual you’re trying to match.

Don’t Forget to Follow Up

After you’ve made a match, follow up with the advisor and client to gauge how well things are going. Here, you’re checking for any potential conflicts or misalignments that may suggest another pairing may be better. 

If a client or advisor gives you feedback that’s less than positive, consider whether the situation is salvageable. If the two seem incompatible, go back to your original assessments to look for another, potentially better, advisor match. 

Use an Advisor Matching Tool

There may be a simpler, faster way to match advisors and clients if you don’t have time to complete the steps above. You could use an advisor marketing platform to make connections with qualified leads, either for yourself or members of your team. 

Matching tools can conduct client and advisor assessments, analyze the responses and use an algorithm to determine who would be a good fit for one another. For example, the tool may assess a client’s willingness to work with an advisor online or in a different city, or use their investable assets to determine which advisor to match them with. 

The advantage of letting an algorithm do the work of matching is that it can save you time while reducing room for error. And using a platform that fully vets prospects ensures that any leads you receive reflect the type of clients you typically work with. 

Bottom Line

Advisors review how to match financial advisors with clients based on personality.

Personality clashes can disrupt your business, but with some due diligence and research, you may be able to avoid them. And if you succeed in making good matches, both your advisors and clients may thank you for your thoughtful efforts. 

Tips for Growing Your Advisory Business

  • Expanding your digital footprint can help you stay competitive and get on the radar of your ideal clients. If you need help increasing your brand’s visibility, you may consider partnering with an advisor marketing platform like SmartAsset AMP. SmartAsset AMP (Advisor Marketing Platform) is a holistic marketing service financial advisors can use for client lead generation and automated marketing. Sign up for a free demo to explore how SmartAsset AMP can help you expand your practice’s marketing operation. Get started today.
  • Knowing why clients leave their advisors could potentially help improve retention rates. Having your existing clients complete an anonymous experience survey or simply asking for feedback can help you better understand what your firm is doing right and where there may be room for improvement.

Photo credit: ©iStock.com/Drazen Zigic, ©iStock.com/Jacob Wackerhausen

  1. “Big Five Personality Traits | EBSCO.” EBSCO Information Services, Inc. | Www.Ebsco.Com, 1 Jan. 2024, https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/big-five-personality-traits. ??
  2. “The 16 MBTI® Personality Types.” Myers & Briggs Foundation, https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/the-16-mbti-personality-types/. Accessed 20 Aug. 2025. ??

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